User blog:Ceauntay/Box Office: 'Moana' Wins Weekend,'Fantastic Beasts' Passes $600M, 'Heroes Forever' Tops 'Jane Hoop Elementary: Goldenman's Revenge'
Walt Disney's Moana earned $28.4 million in its second weekend, which is a drop of 50% from last weekend and brings its domestic total up to $119.9m. For comparison, Tangled fell 55% on its second weekend back in 2010, Frozen fell 53% in 2013 and Toy Story 2 fell 51% in its second wide release weekend. This drop is a heck of a lot better than the 60% plunge for The Good Dinosaur. Point being, it held very well in its second weekend. It is playing frighteningly close to Toy Story 2 in terms of legs and grosses. No, we shouldn't expect Frozen-type legs if only for the fact that there is actually December competition this year. We may still be looking at a possible $240-$260 million domestic total for the $150m toon, depending on its muscle after Rogue One and especially after Sing. The only question is, wait for it, how far it'll go. Concerning overseas might, it is slowly opening around the world and has earned $57m overseas for a $177.4m worldwide total. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is playing more like an early Harry Potter movie than a Twilight sequel or even a Hunger Games sequel. The J.K. Rowling prequel earned $18.5 million in its third weekend, giving it 59% drop. That brings its domestic cume to $183.5m in 17 days. The weekend drop is better than the third-weekend drops for all of the Twilight sequels, all of the Hunger Games sequels, and all three "opened in November" Harry Potter sequels. And it's almost tied with the 58% drop of The Sorcerer's Stone back in 2001. It's still trailing the first (and leggiest) Harry Potter movie by around 20%, which (if this continues into Christmas) still puts it on a path for a $250 million domestic total. So yeah, to answer a question from two weeks ago, I think a $74.4m debut weekend was just big enough. Oh, and the film has earned $424.4m worldwide for a whopping $607.9m worldwide cume. So it's already the 10th-biggest worldwide hit of the year, between The Mermaid ($554m) and Doctor Strange ($634m). Heroes Forever is playing just like any Jane Hoop Elementary movie, with Christmas around the corner, which could put it close to $280 million total. It still just can't stop making more money. After $108.4m on it's opening weekend, it seems to be a remarkable opening, if you know what I mean. With $240.2m in the US, after grabbing another $10.2m this weekend and with $575m, for a total to $815m. It already passed the third Jane Hoop Elementary, Goldenman's Revenge ($795m) from 2003, and only being the second-lowest worldwide hit in Rita Christensen's extended superhero franchise just not far from 2005's The Magic Ball ($895m), 2009's Turbo of Catland ($945m), 2007's Morphin the Power ($949m), 2010's The Final Rush - Part 1 ($960m) and 2000's The First ($972m). It could see it ending in around $990 million to $1.0 billion worldwide, which will still be far behind 2011's The Final Rush - Part 2 ($1.330b) but that is okay everyone! It has already been a huge hit. Amy Adams' alien invasion drama Arrival crossed $100 million worldwide on Friday, which was already great news for the $50m-budgeted Denis Villeneuve picture (it was a $20m acquisition for its distributing studio). Anyway, the film earned $7.3m (-36%, as it added 473 theaters) yesterday for a $73.079m 24-day domestic cume. This is a terrific hold for a pretty great (and clearly buzzy) film. The film is apparently playing as one of the two "babysitter-worthy" adult movies of the season, along with Lionsgate's Hacksaw Ridge. If I was a little harsh on the $17.7 million Wednesday-Sunday opening weekend of Robert Zemeckis's Allied, it was less about the number and more about the likelihood that the "merely okay" World War II thriller would play like most adult-skewing Thanksgiving releases and crawl to around $40m domestic. Without being too apologetic, it's holding up better than I had feared. The film earned $7.05m in its second weekend, which is a drop of 44% and an over/under $28.9m 10-day total. That's a decent hold for a live-action Thanksgiving release (those two examples dropped around 49% in weekend two). Now, we're still looking at a $85 million picture that may make $50m instead of $40m domestic. Obviously Paramount and friends knew that the Brad Pitt/Marion Cotillard thriller was going to make most of its money overseas anyway. It's not remotely out of the woods yet, but nor is it entirely collapsing either. The film has earned $24.8m overseas thus far for a $53.7m worldwide total. I would love to be wrong about this one, as it's precisely the kind of movie Paramount/Viacom Inc. should be releasing. Walt Disney and Marvel's Doctor Strange earned $6.48 million on its fifth weekend, for a drop of 52% and a new $215.3m domestic cume. It's about on par with the 56% fifth-weekend drop for Thor: The Dark World and should be okay until Rogue One crushes everything in sight just before Christmas. The film has earned $634.9m worldwide, meaning it has (inflation and 3D notwithstanding) topped both Iron Man ($585m) and Iron Man 2 ($623m) in worldwide box office. Next up on that arbitrary list is Thor: The Dark World ($642m). DreamWorks Animation's Trolls earned $4.6 million (-56%) in weekend five for a $141m domestic cume, meaning it will probably crawl to $155m by the time it wraps up. Mel Gibson's Hacksaw Ridge added 162 theaters in its fifth weekend. The acclaimed (and possibly Oscar-bound) World War II drama earned $3.4m (-38%) in its fifth weekend for a $57.264m cume. It and Arrival have become the de-facto "adult" movies of the holiday season, which is doubly impressive when you consider that Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them has been playing to an older audience than, say, Moana or Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Bad Santa 2 fell 46% on its second weekend, which isn't that far off from the 42% drop for Bad Santa back in Dec. 2003, but with much smaller numbers. The film has made $3.288 million in its second weekend for a $14.29m 12-day cume. It's not a win, but nor did it vanish after Thanksgiving. Almost Christmas fell 56% in its fourth weekend for a $2.5m gross for Universal/Comcast Corp. That gives the ensemble holiday dramedy a $38.148m cume. For the record, said Will Packer production may end up with a 3x multiplier, which is quite impressive. With the whole "rank doesn't matter" caveat still in place, Manchester By the Sea cracked the top-10 in its third weekend. The Roadside Attractions/Amazon drama/Oscar contender expanded to 156 theaters and earned $2.363 million (+89%) for the effort. The Casey Affleck/Michelle Williams picture now has a $4.423m 17-day cume. STX Entertainment's The Edge of Seventeen earned $1.66m (-44%) in 1,608 theaters over the weekend. That gives the terrific Hailee Steinfeld teen comedy a $12. 78m 17-day cume. It's not a hit, but it's not dead yet, and you owe it to yourself to see it in theaters while you can. Loving earned $997,000 (-41%) in its fifth weekend for a $5.592m cume. Barry Jenkins' Moonlight expanded to 574 theaters and earned $915,750 (-24%) for the effort. That gives the A24 release a $9.89m domestic cume. This one isn't close to done yet, and for that we should be grateful. Warner Bros./Time Warner Inc.'s The Accountant earned another $765,000 (-27%) on its eighth weekend for a $84.26m domestic total. Nocturnal Animals earned $686k (-18%) in its third weekend for a $2.655m domestic and $11m worldwide cume. The Focus Features release, starring Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Shannon, expands next weekend. Warren Beatty's Rules Don't Apply plunged a somewhat expected 65% in its second weekend, $555k for a $3.322m 12-day cume. If you want to see this in theaters, you'd best do so by Friday. Weinstein Company's big Oscar contender, Lion, expanded to seven theaters and had a dynamite hold. The Dev Patel/Rooney Mara/Nicole Kidman drama made $120,234 (-2.5%) on its second weekend. That's a solid $17k per-location-average and a $279k 10-day total. Jessica Chastain's Miss Sloane added a single theater in advance of its wide (or semi-wide) release next weekend. The excellent EuropaCorp release earned $44k (-26%) over the weekend for a $123k 10-day cume. Next weekend sees one major wide release (Office Christmas Party) and a few expansions (Nocturnal Animals and Miss Sloane). Oh, and we'll see if La La Land will set some kind of crazy per-location-average during its platform debut. Category:Blog posts